Sunday, March 15, 2009

Most of you know by now that Amélie Mauresmo is my girl. One of these days, I intend to see her play tennis up close and personal, but that day has not yet come to pass. Though I hold out hope that it does before she hangs up her racquet and moves on to full-time wine collecting or motor biking in the south of France.

This week, Scott Minor over at Talk About Tennis is covering the BNP Paribas Open. Here's an excerpt of his piece Introspective Amélie after her "scratchy" three-set victory over Anna-Lena Groenefeld:

The Frenchwoman took a look back at the highs and lows of her 15-year career, including winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the year-end WTA Championships once each, “You have moments when it’s a little bit more difficult to go to practice and to make the effort and to physically go through the pain. But overall, I didn’t find it difficult, except those moments which are – we’re not robots. We’re not machines. We’re human.

“I think it was the summer of 2007, where I really asked myself the question whether I want to keep going or not. In the end, I didn’t find the answer quickly. It took me a few months to really feel that, for some reason, I don’t have enough.

“At the end of 2008, I really was thinking, okay, I go for 2009, and that’s still how I feel in my mind. I go for 2009, and we’ll see how it goes. If I play well, if I’m injury-free, how do I feel? Am I happy on the court? Is this passion still there? I guess from now on I will, every end of the season, I will probably try to see inside of myself if I want to keep going for another one.”

Fan or not, read the rest. When the elder stateswomen of the game speak, people need to listen.